Little To Celebrate ; Kenny Brack wins a tragic CART race.(Following terrorist attacks at WTC and Pentagon)(Brief Article)

German and American flags waved at half-mast in the damp cold, and the little red-white-and-blue ribbons fluttering on lapels offered the only respite from somber gray. There was little to celebrate at EuroSpeedway Lausitz. With smoke still rising from the rubble in New York, racing seemed trivial. Days after the terrorist attacks in the United States, CART teams and drivers grimly went back to work.

``Our hearts are very, very heavy with the terrible tragedy in the States,'' said driver Adrian Fernandez before the race. ``It's hard to focus on what we're trying to do here. We're just trying to keep going.''

Keep going they did, and for a short time they succeeded in giving nearly 90,000 fans at the Lausitzring respite from the difficult week. Then what was at best a bittersweet day got much worse.

During the waning laps of CART's first race in Germany, leader Alex Zanardi's Reynard spun exiting the pits and slid into the entrance of Turn One, where it was broadsided by Alex Tagliani's car at more than 180 mph. Tagliani sustained only minor injuries, but Zanardi was critically hurt. He was airlifted to Marzahn Hospital in Berlin, where doctors rushed to amputate both his legs, one above the knee, one below, and stop a massive loss of blood. As the weekend ended Zanardi lay in an induced coma, stabilized but still critical.

``We're devastated by the extent of Alex's injuries, but we are so very thankful he's on his way to surviving such a tremendous impact,'' said Morris Nunn, the owner of Zanardi's race car. ``He has quite a battle ahead of him, but knowing what a fighter Alex is, we're confident he'll be able to return home very soon.''

Hope: What everyone was looking for. Rain washed out the first day's activities. With no practice, CART canceled qualifying on Friday and queued the field according to championship points for the race on Saturday. Yet the lone practice session Friday afternoon provided a hint of things to come. Tony Kanaan turned the fast lap on the two-mile tri-oval at 210.34 mph, with teammate Zanardi a tick behind. The rest of the field was nearly 4 mph off the pace. Mo Nunn Racing had clearly come to Germany with a good baseline setup.

Not so Team Penske. Points-leader Gil de Ferran started from the pole, but he lost the lead to Kenny Brack on the first lap and slid backward from there. Teammate Helio Castroneves fared no better, sliding from third to ninth. He finished 12th.